March 30, 2014, State Criterium Championships, Masters 60-64
Chandler AZ
Report from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ
Many thanks to Noel Space for the photography.
(Images can be clicked on for a larger version)
The course is the Southernmost race car course at the Rawhide (previously Firebird) raceway complex in Chandler, AZ, a 12 mile bike ride from my home.
For this race, we just used the Lake Loop and cut out the western section of the course, making it 0.69 miles around.
It is completely flat, and a bunch of twisty turns, making it very narrow in those sections.
The surface was a little rough, especially in the final turns, so I had let my tire pressure at the minimum to minimize bouncing and lowered it a tad more after doing a test lap.
The temperature was about 76 with overcast skies and a cross wind from the left on the finishing stretch.
We were expected to race for 30 minutes, starting at 10:45 am.
We didn't pull into the parking lot until 10:20, so some folks were probably wondering if I'd be participating;
it doesn't take me long to get ready and I don't need any warm-up.
Since State Championship Masters races are divided into 5 year brackets, our turnout of 13 in our 60-64 group was considered to be pretty good.
My first AZ Master Criterium State Championship win was in 2005 and I've won the States the previous 2 years since I returned back from Canada.
We had several other age groups starting at 30 second intervals behind us, but we were not allowed to mix in the eventuality of lapping other groups.
The one exception was the extraordinary Franz Hammer (age 77) who was the only entry in the 75+ category and would ride with us.
David Bixby (Team RPM) was my main rival as he can time trial better than I and has the next best sprint in the group.
Greg Barret was the next best sprinter and those two and myself have often shared the top 3 spots in previous State Championships.
Team RPM had 3 riders in the group and Team Faster had 5, so I needed to be aware of team tactics as well.
My main job was to contain any attacks and then take the sprint at the end, since I have the best short duration top speed, the best acceleration, better cornering capabilities, and a wise use of timing tactics.
The other riders know that they want to try to wear me out to lessen my abilities and they will purposely let riders drift off the front so that I'd need to chase them down if I wanted to guarantee a chance at a win.
These have been the tactics I've been involved with in AZ since 2005.
So it's easiest for me to just latch on to anyone that goes off the front, no matter how fast and make sure they don't just ride away which would later require a larger effort to close the gap.
On the first lap, Carl Mealha went to the front and I was sitting at 4th position.
Since he has just returned to racing this year and not shown outstanding results yet, I was willing to give him some leeway, especially this early in the race.
Craig Liming (Team RPM) kept the pace up to limit his lead, so I kept in 4th spot (behind Franz) and let things flow to conserve my energy.
Craig did a good enough job to close in on Carl and I made sure we reeled him in all the way at lap 1.3 and let him continue to lead as long as he was willing.
His teammate Robert took the lead and I followed him to avoid a gap off the front as Carl tried to let him slip away.
The 60-64 group starts first.
Lap 1, Carl gaining some daylight off the front.
Lap 2, Robert Tomkins leading with myself and Bixby close behind.
We got into lap 3 and Carl wanted to lead again and I made sure that he was closely followed as we went down the back stretch.
So far we had been averaging about 24.5 mph and it had not been at all taxing to me.
After taking turn 11 he started looking back and Wayne (dressed in mostly black) decided to pick up the pace and he passed us on the inside.
Between turn 11 and 12, the course does a strange horizontal dip and Carl continued carving a left turn, rather than straightening out to prepare for turn 12.
I was on his wheel when he bumped into Wayne's shoulder and he took himself down.
I was able to swerve to the outside to avoid running over him and missed the carnage by less than a foot.
Wayne and I eased up to let the pack rejoin, but it seemed I was getting some stares as if I was the cause of the crash.
Carl leading towards end of lap 3.
Wayne looking back at the crash.
I seemed to get an accusing eye.
About 5 laps into the race, there was a prime sprint announced.
Things seemed to be going pretty easily and I was in second position on Carl's wheel (who had rejoined us with the free lap rule).
So as we entered the straight finish, I gave a short acceleration to 31.7 mph and took the prime with little effort.
David Bixby then tried to take a flyer and I immediately got onto his wheel and a few others sat behind me.
We averaged 26.4 mph that lap (the fastest of the day), but I did not encourage the break as there was no advantage for me to do so; however the lap was not really taxing.
But as easy as it felt, I was surprised to see that there were only 5 of us left in the lead group after that lap.
However, no one was willing to take a turn at the front except for David and I.
I figured it would be easier to control 4 others than 12 others for a sprint finish, so I contributed some effort to maintain the gap, since it wasn't taking much effort.
Carl was using his injuries as an excuse, Greg rarely takes turns at the front, and James Browning (Faster, green helmet) seemed to be struggling to stay with us.
At the end of lap 11, the officials had put out the board for 6 laps to go to the finish.
The five leaders.
Carl showing us his injuries as we finish lap 9.
Lap 11, making it look good.
Lap 13, 4 to go, giving David a break from the front.
Just after crossing the line with 4 to go, David Bixby launched a strong attack on the outside.
I quickly got onto his wheel, hitting 32.7 mph, and he continued to keep the pace up.
He saw me as we began turn 2, but he pressed on.
We averaged 25.8 mph for the lap, but it didn't have any impact on shedding anyone from our group.
3 to go, Browning in front.
2 to go, Bixby tries again.
2 to go, Bixby contained.
1 to go, playing cat and mouse, 2 chasers not far away.
As we came to the end of the race and Bixby had tried his attacks without success, we settled into wait mode for the sprint.
We eased up so much, that we only averaged 21.3 mph on the penultimate lap.
This allowed our group of 5 to be caught by two chasers (one of them being Franz Hammer) and on the back stretch with half a lap to go,
I found myself boxed in front, right, and left and in 5th position; not where I wanted to be.
Fearing that there could be an intent to box me out from using my sprint, I went to my plan B,
being willing to risk a longer sprint that might give someone a tow to the line, rather than facing tactics or bad luck that could interfere with using the speed I knew I had.
I eased up a bit to get out of the box and moved to the right so I had room to pass.
I knew as we went through turn 9, a left bend, that they would keep to the left side of the course.
So I put the gear in my 50x15 and in the middle of that turn I jumped from the 26 mph we were at to 33.4 mph, quickly passing them all before turn 10.
I kept the speed up through turn 10 and kept it steady as I continued to the far right to set up the best line for turn 11.
By this time I already had at least a 3 length gap, so I eased up a bit for turn 11, dropping to 28 mph to better handle the bumpy road, then picked it up again to 33 mph.
It was difficult to hold the turn at this speed, so any increase in speed might have just sent me farther out and give me a worse line to the finish.
As we hit the straight section I saw that I had the race won, so I could ease up a bit and take a one hand salute, not using 2 hands due to the windy conditions.
Sprint: coming out of turn 11.
Final time through turn 12.
The 7 of us heading towards the line.
Victory.
Podium.
So no bad luck or mishaps made for a relatively easy win.
David and Greg picked up the remaining medals.
I was surprised upon analysis after the race that we averaged 24.5 mph as it had seemed incredibly slow.
A nice benefit was that the winners of each category received a nice "unofficial" AZ State Champion jersey.
I was also able to take home 4 tubes that I can use for training from my prime effort.
Summary
Start
Time |
Distance
(Miles) |
Starters |
Duration |
Speed avg
(MPH) |
Speed Max
(MPH) |
| 10:50 am |
11.7 |
13 |
28:33 |
24.5 |
33.4 |
Results
Racing page Bike page
